Some Aspects...

I just finished the last presentation for the seminarians of our extended recollection this weekend. The theme for the recollection was on aspects of the New Evangelization. This was a follow through from our community's bonding exercise last weekend to start off the year's academic and formation activities.

Merry Christmas!

Crop of original painting "Anbetung der Hirten" (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On this special day, I wish all readers and people of good will a blessed and holy Christmas and may God's blessings of peace and joy be unto you all!

It's 10 Now!

It was 10 years ago when I said yes to my life as a priest after the heart of Christ.

Looking back at all that have transpired so far and the journey that led me to where I am now, I can only remain utterly grateful for this vocation that continues to allow me to unfold my potential as God's instrument to give his presence in the world today.

Certainly, there have been many hits and misses and I continue to learn from my mistakes and mishaps, where I continue onwards to carry out my mission as a minister of God, especially as pastor and mediator. Life as priest in the present times has been very challenging and theer will be no end to what I can already feel, which many times can be between a rock and a hard place. It can always come down to a situation that one can just give up and walk away from it all.

Enhancing Lives

The semester break have started two weeks back and right off the bat, I was busily maneuvering through several Masses, EE meetings, some Spiritual Direction sessions, that I couldn't find the time to sit down to pen any thoughts - till now.

Even so, there are som any things going on and round my mind that it is rather difficult to focus on a particular topic to write on. What seem to be mostly on the top of my mind, however, is strangely nothing spiritual, but have a lot of implications for our faith lives nonetheless.

This came surprisingly from a very secular quarter and one that has inserted itself into the lives of all persons, whether subtly or major way, that in the now is seen as something of the norm and perhaps for many, which cannot be done without.

O Wisdom!

O Sapientia (Photo credit: Lawrence OP)

What is wisdom, really, to you?

What comes to mind when one mentions the word 'wisdom'? Is it all about human wisdom, cleverness, being street-smart and all knowing kind of attitude?

Is There Any Proof?...

I came across this video and saw it as a compelling piece that, somehow, mirrors very closely the state of affairs among our own teens before and/or after their confirmation.  On a bigger scale, it really is about all of us in the faith. Do we know that we are Catholics and show it? Is there any proof to exhibit that state of life?....

From Death To Life!

Incensing2 (Photo credit: Annoysius)

Happy Easter to one and all!

Forget the Easter bunny! Christ is risen, alleluia!

Sometimes we allow ourselves to be distracted too much by the lesser trappings of the Easter celebrations that we forget the real reason of this celebration. Our 40 days of the Lenten period is over, and now we rejoice and are filled with a lightness that speaks of a deep and profound happiness which pervades our being in knowing that Jesus Christ has conquered death! This implies that we, too, follow in his steps to conquering our death in our journey to God, our Father.

What can be more joyful and exhilirating than that?...

Related articles

• The silent beauty of Easter joy (frlukefong.blogspot.com)
• Benedict XVI's Sermon for the Easter Vigil: of creation, light, communication, community, and bees (wdtprs.com)
• PASCHALCAzT 47: Easter Sunday - "the one in whose fist all things are enclosed" (wdtprs.com)

Christ in the Media?....

Image via CrunchBase

In the past, I have often lament about the lack of understanding and discerning approach towards teh area of socail media and networking and was wondering if there was a Catholic pespective in this to help us wade through the flotsam and jetsam of this media culture whose wave of influence have affected practically every spectrum of a person's life, whether they be infant, the young or the old.

Recently, I went to a talk at the Singapore Pastoral Institute given by Dr Eugene Gan, who teaches interactive media and communication arts at the Franciscan University of Steubenville (Ohio). The talk was organised by the Archdiocesan Communications office and Dr Gan shared with the audience about how to use the media rightly, and through it to engage people and bring them to something better. This was the best and insightful starting point for my grasp to this dilemma of a Catholic Christian perspective on social media and the likes.

His session - Infinite Bandwith: Encountering Christ in the Media - outline several points that any one, parents especially, who is serious in making sense of what the culture of social media is all about (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc...):

It is as old as Creation itself

It is all about communications. God is himself the greatest communicator and since the time of Creation has been using social media in varied ways to get our attention to respond to Him. Of course, how He does that will be in line and pertinent with the times and era of humanity in history. For us today, it just happens to be in the forms of Facebook and other related items. Thus such forms of communications are gifts from God and must be used appropriately and wisely.

Media Keys

This then brings us to the need for a good and discerning tool in order to have a balance approach to the use of the social media elements that proliferate within most aspect of the societal's lives and experiences. Hence, we speak of media keys, 7 of them as proposed by Dr Gan:

a. Balanced - practice balanced on interacting online, interactin in-person, managing my responsibilities.

b. Attitude - my attitude, who is the intended audience?

c. Personal - do I uphold human dignity? do I promote individualism or support a communal spirit?

d. Truth-filled - is it grounded on the Word of God? make a distinction between truth and accuracy, am I representig myself authentically online?

e. Inspires - media is a sign, not an end; do I inspire others to seek the truth?

f. Skillfully developed - is it creatively, skillfully and artfully produced or communicated?

g. Motivated by & Relevant to Experience - does it engage or interest you? do you use online social media to build bridges?

His book, which the title of his talk was derived from, is on sale as an ebook online (e.g. Amazon) or can be gotten as a paperback from Emmaus Road Publishing, and should form an indispensible and engaging read for parents, catechists, teachers or anyone who is interested in dealing with the effects of social media in one's life.

Another equally engaging book that looks into this arena is "The Church and the New Media" by Brandon Vogt. The premise is similar and it asks this probing question: How can Christians harness these new tools to reach out, to teach, to build community, and to change the world? Too often we, as members of the clergy and lay faithful are slow in engaging the social media effectively in really "changing the world". This book wants to offer a right step in that direction to cultivate community and form the faithful, among other things.

If you are searching around for something engaging, soul-searching and faith-filled to read and yet be in touch with the realities of the daily life these are the two you ought to get your hands on!

Related articles

• Social Media...bad for educators?! Not!...and Why? (adaptivelearnin.wordpress.com)
• How Do I Evangelize? (catholicjules.net)

Which Is the Real Way?

Image by 2create via Flickr866th post and counting...

That's blogging since June 27th 2001! It has been just a over 10 years of engaging in this type social media that has since taken over the world in so many ways that now it has already become one of the many 'norms' of communicating on the Web. It is also a way where one opens up a little of one's life to the world which is constantly monitoring for any news bite that it wants to highlight.

Recently, there were some discussion brought up by a friend who pointed to the dubious value of things related to New Age and their ilks. These may include yoga, chi gong, Harry Potter stuff, etc. I am sure there are some of us out there who may already been involved in some small way towards some usage of practice of these elements. Fr William Goh over at the Catholic Spirituality Centre has spoken with some greater detail on this matter under the topic of New Age Spirituality: The Dangers of Syncretism and Illegitimate Assimilation of New Age Beliefs into the Christian Faith.

I, myself, hardly bothered with such New Age stuff - whether one calls yoga or chi gong as such - and my attention to the Harry Potter (and the Twilight series) products are just entertainment curiosities akin to watching The Green Lantern, The Green Hornet, The Green Mile, and so on.

But for the younger generation of this era, these elements are highly influential to them and do form some sort of a construct of how they see the world, act as humans/adults, all of which will then inform - rightly or wrongly - their thinking on matters of right and wrong, fantasy and reality, natural and supernatural. It becomes seriously damaging when all of these coaleasce into one fuzzy mixture where proper distinctions cannot be made or are not being made between each one.

We find ourselves, especially today, in an era where information, and there is an explosion of them, are taken easily for granted and there is a general lack of discerning them carefully whether they are suitable for consumption and how to deal with them appropriately. Mostly, we may be also totally clueless of the implications of the information we are staring at. In all this, all persons are, in one way or another, doing one's best as one can, to perceive or believe and to achieve towards the truth of things in life.

However, as Catholics and disciples of Christ, I believe that all of us must do our own upmost and with great gumption, sincerity and honesty own up and reclaim our truth in Jesus Christ, "... the real way to happiness, the truth about God and the fullness of life for every man and woman who is prepared to respond to His love".

Any other way would leave us totally disoriented, confuse and, ultimately, lost.

Related articles

• No childish devotion (hughosb.wordpress.com)
• Diocesan Vocation Retreat 2011 - Testimony #1 (kampungpunggol.blogspot.com)
• something a little different :: how social media changed my life (confessionsofadesigngeek.wordpress.com)

Love

This is time of the year when the Seminary takes a break - two months of it, to be exact!

During such moments, the place here resembles a little bit more on the side of a cemetary than that of the Seminary. Much of the main activities here have slowed off or shut down. The staff is almost a skeletal crew. Yet, it still doesn't stop some parish groups from having their time for retreats and other related engagements in the Seminary.

In this lull moments, one would be forgiven to think that I would be free and have much more time than during the term times. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Besides having to prepare and do up the notes for the next semester's classes in the Philosophy cycle, I also have to contend with my other Archdiocesan work in the Priestly Life and ad-hoc committees, and other minor talks and retreats, all with need to do some preparation and research, etc. These, again, means time needed to work on the items trying to juggle all of them, finding a decent balance to what my body and mind can cope with.

Tomorrow, for the entire day into the night, I shall be at IHM retreat house giving a session to one of the parish choir on the theme of God's Love For Us. It is an apt moment to consider this and also for myself, because for most of the time that we exist, we don't ever find the time to look into the awesomeness of this love that is always enveloping and sustaining us and providing life all the time.

This coming Sunday's celebration happens to be Trinity Sunday and is also a great day to celebrate this love for it speaks of the fiery and deep relationship between the Father and Son which the Holy Spirit unites in the embrace of utter unconditional love that wants to ignite the world with its power.

Our human version of what love is all about pales in total comparison with what the prophets of the Old Testament experienced, the apostles and disciples of Christ engage it, and the early Christians felt when they allowed themselves to be wrapped up in this ferocious and passionate love that knows no end but only limited by how we response to it.

No matter what we can say about this, perhaps no one can put it in a better way than Paul himself who touched that powerhouse of love and was burned to the very core by its fiery passion:

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels,

nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us

from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Rom 8: 38 - 39

Who IS Our God?

Image via Wikipedia

The recent highlight in the papers recently (The Sunday Times, 6 February 2011, Home section, pg 8) on the issue of dress code in the Catholic churches have brought out some burning thoughts from my mind as I ponder on this tension of how we present ourselves before our God.

First and foremost, it is an issue that falls solely upon us Catholics Christians as believers of God we call Father. It is also an issue that only within this recent decades have emerged as a challenging dimension in one's spiritual life or lack of it in the context of our calling into the discipleship of Christ. It is also an issue that will determine whether we can effectively work out our baptismal calling and vows that want us and is pointing us to being truly people of God who are 'salt of the earth' and 'light to the world'.

It is therefore telling upon us as Catholics, in particular, that much of this brouhaha and tension arising from this matter can be encapsulated into the following statement that was towards the end of the article: "We are taught that God loves us no matter what we are, so why should the church discriminate against our attire?"

It is certainly true that God loves us no matter what we are. The whole of our Bible attest to that, Old and New Testament alike. But to stop at that or to simply choose to bracket our faith solely on that loving  action of God, is like seeing life and the question of God and the way we celebrate and express our faith with blinkers or with just one good eye. The view is myopic and half-truthful at best, disrespectful, distorted and on the borders of heresy at worst.

Much of what we encountered and are influenced by in the world of modernity of today, we have in some way living a life that is somewhat based on a measured freedom that, to some extend, allow us to do, say or acknowledge whatever one chooses. This is also an influence that has affected ourselves as a people of God who is '... in the world but is not of the world'. We are seeing that happening through this article in the papers recently.

Which brings us back to the question of God who '... loves us no matter what we are'.

I wonder just how each of us see or know God for who he really is.  With the kinds of images and responses which we can give to the question of who God is for us, there are many that is not truly the God I know that is revealed to us in the Scriptures and '... in the last days... has spoken to us by a Son' (Hb 1: 1 - 2).

This is because we seem to be rather lackadaisical about our faith that everything becomes relative to the secular dimension which in turn dilute the very power and glory of God which we are continously called to proclaim (1 Pt 2: 9 - 10). If we truly experience the real and active nature and presence of God in our lives, an experience of being taken out of darkness and into His wonderful light (and life), there would be no fighting over as to how to worship Him and what attire we wear. We would know what is the right thing to do. Our attitude, however, seems to have placed God, which is summed up in the following words by a German Dominican mystic, Meister Eckhart: "... you are acting just as if you took God and muffled his head up in a cloak and pushed him under a bench..."

What it boils down to, is our response to the fact '... that God loves us no matter what we are'. It is precisely because of that love that we ought to be able to give the necessary reverance and respect in return, which will form the basis of a decent and right ATTITUDE to use for any Mass or Eucharistic celebration.

What kind of a God that deserves such reverence and respect that we  quibble over? The whole of Scriptures have given us generous signs and clues and spiritual footnotes, where the few given here, can help us reconsider our attitude we now possess towards God.

In Genesis, as with the readings we have during these weeks, we see the Fall of man and woman in their disobedience to God and their lost of supernatural life that placed them into a state where they had to hide from his presence and the sound of his voice. Commentors have said that besides hiding because they were naked, it was also this presence and voice which they now could not bear. Psalm 29 gives us this idea what commentators are hinting at:

... the voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.


The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon...


The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire...
the voice f the Lord... shakes the wilderness of Kadesh...


The voice of the Lord... strips the forest bare...
and in his temple all say 'Glory!'

This is the God who, also in his reply to Job, gave a sweeping and majestic account of his powers and glory that signifies He is in charge: 

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?...
... who laid the cornerstones when the morning stars sang together...
... who shut in the seas with doors when it burst from the womb...
... entered into the springs of the sea or walked the recesses of the deep?...
... cut a channel for the torrents of rain, and a way for the thunder bolts...
... know the ordinances of the heavens... establish their rule on earth?...
(Job 38: 1ff)

One can go on and on to see how much we have misjudged the very nature of God and by our lazy manner in addressing our relationship with Him thinking he is like any other things we use and put back to the shelf when we tire of him.

Seriously, I think we are like the disciples in today's gospel reading (Mk 8: 14 - 23) who were clueless about Jesus' identity and his power when he had to question their understanding after the feeding of the crowd on two occasion: "Are you still without perception?". The disciples were thinking about food when Jesus talked about the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod, while he meant them to look at the signs given that point to the message of the Kingdom and who the messenger that is in their midst.

I think we are doing just that today - ignoring God in our midst and immersing ourselves too much in the material realities of the world and being influenced by them. I believe we can do better than that. After all, He has given us, who believe, the power to become His children and what greater deed can any child to do than in honouring this position and gift by offering back a reasonable semblance of reverance and respect for our Creator who continues to love us and sustain our existence, no matter what we are.

Related articles

• Blessed be His Holy Name (wdtprs.com)
• Reflections and Ruminations: The beatitudes - Jesus' Real Hard Truths (frlukefong.blogspot.com)

Sold!

Image via Wikipedia

I had the opportunity to celebrate Mass this afternoon over at the Catholic Archdiocesan Youth Center (CAYC, Lorong Low Koon), for the youths and young adults undergoing the School of Witness (SOW) program.

In my homily, I mentioned something about Steve Jobs and his way of 'selling' a product, from an interesting read here. When he first introduced the iPad into the public's eye and subsequently the world, he sold us the idea that this device is “magical” and how it is a great way to experience the Internet. He also gave practical examples of using the iPad and emphasized its ease of use and how fun it is, basically for anyone, to use. When his competitors jumped onto the bandwagon recently and started selling their iPad killer tablets, they talked about how they had dual-processors, included so many gigs of memory, and ran the latest Android OS. They reiterated the great tech specs their tablet had compared to the iPad and other tablet devices. Time will tell whether these tablets will 'kill' the iPad.

However, noticed how Jobs sold his iPad that captured the imagination of millions of people worldwide that his competitors had to play catch-up to. While the competitors spoke of technical superiority their product may have over the iPad, Steve spoke of how his product will change people’s lives. It is as if, the article mentions, while his competitors were trying to sell toothpaste, Steve was selling white teeth! Between white teeth and toothpaste, it is a no-brainer which most people would gravitate to!

What's this got to do with our faith life?

The article which is one of the items where my homily runs on, mentions that the method of Jobs sales pitch can teach us something about how we evangelize our faith to others. Certainly, we do need to know and pass on the technical details and teachings of our faith - the hows, whys and what-nots. But these are not the main first things to use to get people's attention. Instead we must proclaim that Christ has changed our lives and that he can change yours/others as well. Those who are in most need of Christ will be drawn to our experience and it will lead them to want to know more about this Jesus Christ and his Church that have so radically changed our lives.

I am assuming that we ourselves, who are in this evangelizing mission, have lives that are radically changed by Christ, or that we have experienced Christ profoundly to be able to share this experience.